Mother of returning British jihadist warns of Paris-style attack in UK

The mother of a young jihadist who fought in Syria last year said the UK risks a Paris-style terror attack if it fails to step up its support for de-radicalization and rehabilitation programs for returning British jihadis.

The woman, known only as
Linda, flew to Turkey to bring back her 21-year-old son, James,
last year after he secretly left their home in north London to
fight alongside a militant group linked to Islamic State (also
known as ISIS or ISIL).

“It is quite worrying that there's all these young men
returning from these situations and I think that without the
right provisions and right care, we could be risking an incident
like what happened in France. We do as a society need to address
these issues,” she said in an interview with BBC Inside Out
London.

“There’s no point in us as a society denying the presence of
all these people that are coming back because they are coming
back and ignoring the problem isn’t going to make it any better.
I feel if these people are just left unattended, not helped, not
supported, the potential to society could be devastating. They
could become a walking time bomb.”

Linda said she tried to get help for her son to support him in
his de-radicalization progress and his re-adjustment to society.
However, she added, “I went to various places to try and get
him help but they've just said, ‘you know, there's nothing we can
do.’”

She said her son was recruited by jihadists online. While in
Syria, he was caught in crossfire between opposing militant
groups and was hit in the shoulder by shrapnel. When his mother
found out about his injury she traveled to the Turkish border
with Syria to retrieve him.

“He was in quite a fragile state,” she said. “He was
by himself, he was scared.”

“At that point I knew I was going to have to go to Turkey.
Because it gave him something to aim for, because he knew that
his mum was waiting for him.”

They were reunited four months after he left their London home.
After returning to the UK in February last year, he has been
questioned by Scotland Yard, but was released the same day
because he was not deemed a risk.

MI5 have since “pressured” James into giving them
information, his mother said.

“I’ve spent a lot of time and effort with him to help him to
heal but it worries me that there are no provisions for other
people and I know from my own experience that this sort of thing
can be difficult for parents.”

As many as 500 young British Muslims are thought to have traveled
to fight in Iraq and Syria. Around 300 are believed to have
returned to the UK since.

The UK government says it offers returnees the opportunity to
enter counter-radicalization programs, such as the Channel
program, but Linda said no such support has been offered to her
son.